TOWER PLACE ADAPTIVE REUSE STRATEGY 889 BARNUM AVENUE | BRIDGEPORT, CT SEPTEMBER 2017 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE MEMBERS Mayor Joseph Ganim | City of Bridgeport John Gomes, CAO | City of Bridgeport John Urquidi, City Engineer | City of Bridgeport Guillermo Marin | East Side NRZ Keith Williams | East End NRZ Francisco Borres | Mill Hill NRZ Tom Stilley | DuPont Properties Michael Taylor | Vita Nuova/DuPont representative Marian Whiteman | General Electric Company Pam Elkow | General Electric Representative Marc Brunetti | Yale New Haven Health/Bridgeport Hospital Todd McClutchy | JHM Group Kim Morque | Spinnaker Real Estate Partners Lud Spinelli | Optimus Healthcare Kevin Reed | Bridgeport Trade and Technology Center Melissa Kaplan-Macey | Regional Plan Association James Slaughter | Park City Communities STAFF SUPPORT, CITY OF BRIDGEPORT—OPED Dean Mack, Planner II Lynn Haig, Planning Director Curtis Denton, GIS Administrator Frank Croke, Senior Economic Development Associate Parag Agrawal, Former Planning Director Emily Provonsha, Former Planner II FUNDED BY State of Connecticut, Office of Policy and Management (OPM) Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) Planning Grant Program PLANNING TEAM Goody Clancy | VHB | W-ZHA Simpson Grumpertz & Heger | VJ Associates BARNUM STATION TOD PLAN | 1 CONTENTS About Tower Place .................................................... 2 Sample redevelopment phasing sequence ......22 Site context and history ............................................. 2 Economic feasibility and .........................................25 development strategy Tower Place .................................................................... 6 Near-term use possibilities ..................................28 Adaptive reuse potential ......................................... 8 Existing building conditions and suitability......... 8 Urban design guidelines ........................................30 for marketable program Recommended site layout principles ................ 30 Land use and development strategy ................... 12 Applying the Urban and Architectural ................35 Design Guidelines Market potential and positioning ...........................12 Regulating plan ...........................................................36 Land use recommendations and scenarios ......14 Building types ..............................................................37 Recommended zoning updates .............................15 Frontage types ........................................................... 38 Development scenario characteristics ...............16 Traffic analysis .............................................................17 Architectural design guidelines .......................... 48 Redevelopment land use scenarios ................... 20 2 | TOWER PLACE ADAPTIVE REUSE STRATEGY | ABOUT TOWER PLACE ABOUT TOWER PLACE Site context and history 889 Barnum Avenue was a central part of the massive Remington Arms factory complex built in East Bridgeport early in the Twentieth Century. The City of Bridgeport owns much of 889 Barnum Avenue, a central portion of the former Remington Arms manufacturing complex. The property is also Tower Place, or to some, the Remgrit site. In the first half of the Twentieth Century, the Remington Arms complex grew to become one of the largest and most important ammunition manufacturing facilities in the United States. It gained worldwide significance as a major manufacturing center for ammunition used by Allied forces in World War I and later again in World War II. Manufacturing and product testing took place not only at 889 Barnum View from the Shot Avenue, but also on several other sites stretching two miles north from Tower southeast Barnum Avenue, connected by a rail spur and streets. Other regional toward the viewpoint of the industries, particularly the brass industry present in Connecticut’s image below. Naugatuck River valley, formed an important part of the supply chain for production at Remington Arms. As munitions production at the Shot Tower complex gradually declined after World Tower Place can War II, some of these sites shifted to form the nucleus of other uses. Production at 889 Barnum broader revitalization Avenue continued at lower levels into the HELEN ST in East Bridgeport, 1980’s. View from above Seaview Avenue accommodating near the railroad and Yellow Mill Channel, northwest toward the Shot more than 4,000 Today, 889 Barnum Avenue can play a BARNUM AVE Tower. jobs and spurring pivotal strategic role in Barnum Station many more. Area Transit-Oriented Redevelopment. The site, and others formerly used by Remington, have seen little or no economic activity over the past two decades. This has in part contributed to the decline of adjoining Singer Factory neighborhoods, for which the sites once provided thousands of jobs. Yet, the chain of vacant industrial sites stretching north and south Looking northeast past Saints Cyril from 889 Barnum possesses great strategic value for economic and Methodius Church, the railroad and Singer Sewing Machine factory toward The Shot Tower, viewed from Helen TEXT CONTINUES ON PAGE 6 the Shot Tower and Remington factory. Street, remains a landmark today. TOWER PLACE ADAPTIVE REUSE STRATEGY | ABOUT TOWER PLACE | 3 CONNECTICUT’S NEXT GREAT ECONOMIC GROWTH CORRIDOR Tower Place is uniquely positioned to form • 1,800 to 2,400 new jobs on-site • Collaborative, connected “innovation the nucleus of a new center of jobs and district” work environment that builds amenities driving economic development for • 3,000 to 4,000 new jobs in Bridgeport Connecticut’s strategic economic sectors area neighborhoods, Bridgeport as a whole, as a whole • New jobs, transportation choices, housing and southwestern Connecticut. Opportunity • 4,000 to 5,000 or more new jobs can be maximized by following a mixed-use, options, parks, retail, and cultural activity in Fairfield and New Haven Counties as a serving adjoining neighborhoods transit-oriented development approach, whole emphasizing employment-related uses near • Restoration of polluted soils and crumbling the planned Barnum Station, and including • $300 million to $500 million in buildings as productive areas to work, live, housing, neighborhood retail, parks and other new income to people in the region play and learn, along a natural greenway community uses as well. Benefits can include: Barnum Avenue can transform into a prime development address, with easy access by rail and road. EXISTING POTENTIAL New mixed-use real-estate development flanking Barnum Avenue Tower Place, together with the Barnum Station site, can be redeveloped with around Barnum Avenue to establish an attractive, high-value center for employment, living, and community uses. Barnum Station site Yellow Mill Greenway Barnum Avenue Tower Place 4 | TOWER PLACE ADAPTIVE REUSE STRATEGY | ABOUT TOWER PLACE TOWER PLACE: CENTER OF A REVITALIZED EAST BRIDGEPORT Tower Place is an important site within the larger community revitalization framework provided by the Barnum Station Transit-Oriented Development Plan. The plan enhances transportation choices, services and employment options for thousands of residents and established employers in East Bridgeport. High-intensity employment priority areas: Allow office, research, Retail priority: High-visibility locations where active ground floor retail is university, artisanal manufacturing, residential. Exclude light industrial. most desirable and economically feasible to offer neighborhood shopping, Target at least 50% of developed floor area for employment uses. enhance safety. Include ground floor storefront space suitable for immediate or future retail occupancy. Walkable light industrial acceptable areas: Welcome light-industrial, but apply design standards to ensure safe, inviting walking conditions along Pedestrian design overlay: Here, zoning should be supplemented by these properties. additional design guidelines promoting safe and inviting walking conditions. Housing priority areas: Priority residential development, reinforcing Yellow Mill Greenway: Includes existing waterways and 100-year floodplain. established neighborhood patterns. Primarily multifamily, mixed-income Should be left undeveloped as visual and recreational amenity, enhancing with significant market-rate component. value of real estate and improving storm resilience. TOWER PLACE ADAPTIVE REUSE STRATEGY | ABOUT TOWER PLACE | 5 Downtown Bridgeport Barnum Station Steelpointe entrance Harbor I-95 WATERVIEW AVE HELEN ST Yellow Mill Channel ARCTIC ST BARNUM AVE Barnum Station site Tower Place SEAVIEW AVE Bridgeport Hospital Bridgeport Hospital View of Tower Place redevelopment scenario, looking from Seaview Avenue past Barnum Station toward Downtown Bridgeport 6 | TOWER PLACE ADAPTIVE REUSE STRATEGY | ABOUT TOWER PLACE development. Located along a corridor generally following Seaview Tower Place Avenue and the Yellow Mill Greenway, the sites form one of the most 889 Barnum Avenue adjoins two other privately-owned parcels with significant aggregations of underutilized industrial land in Connecticut, redevelopment opportunity, on the large block surrounded by Barnum and have convenient access to several highways—Interstate 95, and Seaview Avenues, and Arctic and Helen Streets (see diagram on and Connecticut Routes 8, 15 and 25. A number of light industrial facing page, lower left). In total, these parcels contain approximately operations remain in this corridor, finding it a competitive location. 22 developable acres, exclusive